Auckland house price growth appears to be slowing

Auckland residential sales by the city's biggest real estate agency have hit an all-time high of $826,474 and June's sales turnover was the highest in 11 years - but price rise growth appears to finally be slowing.

Barfoot & Thompson managing director Peter Thompson announced the new figures this morning but said the rate of price increase had slowed somewhat: prices in the latest three months rose by only 3.2 per cent a month whereas for the earlier three months, the average median price increase was 6.5 per cent a month.

"While the new Government and Reserve Bank measures which are due to come into effect in October are likely to be having some impact on prices, as will the approach of winter, there is also a growing feeling among buyers and sellers that homes are close to being fully priced.

"As we enter winter choice will remain a challenge, and at the end of June we had only 2959 properties on our books. June was the third month in a row when the number of properties for sale at month-end declined and choice is now the most limited it has been since last Christmas/New Year," Thompson said.

June saw a large number of more expensive places sell in Auckland.

"During the month, 370 properties sold for in excess of $1 million, nearly a third of the homes sold during the month being in this price category. While homes for sale under $500,000 are still available, in June only 159 or 13.6 percent of all the homes sold fell into this price segment.

"The 20 percent LVR regime is severely impacting sales numbers in this price category, and an easing of restrictions as it relates to homes of $500,000 and below would potentially redress the current declining sales trend, and also help lower the average selling price," Thompson said.